"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel
nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest
lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

Friday, March 28, 2014

The White House on Friday touted the story of a “staunch Republican” who
says he’s getting the best coverage he’s ever had under ObamaCare.

“I am a staunch Republican, a self-proclaimed Fox News addict, and I
didn't vote for the President,” Mark Beard, a retired psychologist from
North Carolina, wrote in a letter posted on the White House website.
“And I'm here to tell you that ObamaCare works. I'm living proof.”

Beard
said he was paying $428 a month for chemotherapy treatment and was
upset when he got a notice from his insurer saying his plan would be
canceled. But he said the plan he obtained through HealthCare.gov is now
only costing him $62 a month.“It's the best health care I have ever had,” he said.

“I
may not be a supporter of the President. But now, I get mad when I see
ObamaCare dragged through the mud on television,” he continued. “And
even though I regularly tune in to conservative pundits, I'd like to
tell them they're getting it wrong. ObamaCare works.”

Republicans
and Democrats have been seeking to personalize their positions on the
healthcare law by advertising anecdotal accounts of those who have been
negatively or positively impacted by the law.

The parties have
clashed over some campaign ads, most prominently an ad from the
conservative group Americans For Prosperity that featured a woman who
says she lost her preferred health insurance plan because of ObamaCare.

Democrats
say the woman ended up saving money on her new plan, but Republicans
shot back, accusing them of attacking a private citizen who suffers from
cancer.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill
that would allow coal mining companies to return to an old practice of
dumping mining waste into streams.House Speaker John Boehner, a
Republican from Ohio, called it part of an effort to stop what
Republicans call the “war on coal” and a “pro-growth jobs bill.”
Triangle Republican members of Congress Renee Ellmers, Howard Coble and
George Holding voted for it, as did Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Democrat. And
Democratic Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield voted against it. The
vote was 229-192.The rule allowing the waste to go into streams
was put into effect at the end of the administration of President George
W. Bush. The U.S. District Court in Washington in February declared the
regulation invalid. The House bill would put the rule into law,
assuming it got Senate approval and a presidential signature.Deborah
Murray, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center,
which challenged the rule in court, said in a statement: “We hope the
Senate does not take up this damaging legislation, which would set a
troubling precedent. If this legislation were to become law, it would
mean more mining waste and pollution in our nation’s streams, especially
the beautiful and ecologically diverse waterways of Appalachia.”

A smattering of white people on Saturday stood up to discrimination against their race that exists only in their minds.

The so-called "White Man March" was the brainchild of an organizer
named Kyle Hunt, who wrote on his website that he expected "thousands"
of people to take part in "coordinated pro-white activity."By the looks of it, his vision may have been a bit lofty. The
demonstrations appear to have mostly involved a few people here and
there holding up signs decrying "diversity." Hunt's movement did, however, earn a ton of mockery on Twitter with the hashtag #WhiteManMarchProtestSigns. There was some participation though. Individuals from Missouri, Arkansas and even New Zealand posted photos on the event's website.
Most of the photos showed no more than a couple white guys holding
banners that read "'DIVERSITY' = WHITE GENOCIDE," apparently the event's
rallying cry.The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on a local group in Florence, Ky. that held pro-white signs at a busy intersection for a few hours on Saturday.Robert Randsell, who organized the event in Florence, said white people were overdue for their own movement. "As far as anyone in opposition, I would say it is 2014. That is one
thing you guys love to say, 'it is 2014, how can these racists be out
here?' Well, it is 2014. It has been six or seven decades since white
people stood up for themselves and it is about time we start doing so,"
Ransdell told the Enquirer.Police in Birmingham, Ala., meanwhile, removed four of the "white genocide" banners that were displayed throughout the community.What were Hunt's motives? A page
on the website did little to answer the question. Hunt wrote that he
aimed "to spread information through activism, but also to make a
statement that White people are united in their love for their race and
in their opposition to its destruction."He wanted to show that "White people are organized and impassioned,
that we know what the anti-white agenda is all about, and that we are
dedicated to waking up as many of our folk as possible." And Hunt said that the demonstrations would show that "the old stereotypes about pro-white activists are false."But if you think his goals for Saturday's events were a bit misguided, Hunt told Vice that he has some big plans for himself, too."I very well may be president of the United States in 2020, but for
right now I am supporting some pro-White candidates from the American
Freedom Party," he said.

Friday, March 14, 2014

The auto plant at center of a misleading TV ad run by Mitt Romney's campaign during the 2012 presidential election is booming, Bloomberg reported Friday.

In a last-ditch effort to swing Ohio into the Republican column in the waning days of the campaign, Romney's team aired an ad that gave the impression that Chrysler would ship jobs to China because of President Obama's auto rescue."Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to
Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China," the ad's narrator
claimed.Not only is the factory in question still in Ohio, demand for Jeeps
is so great that Chrysler is planning on hiring up to 1,000 part-time
workers as a way to alleviate pressure on regular employees who work 60
hours per week.“Our people have been working a tremendous amount of hours,” Toledo Assembly Plant Manager Chuck Padden told the Toledo Blade. “To get them more time off is important to us, to make sure they’re refreshed, and can work safely.”Chrysler has already hired 380 temporary part-time employees, 50 of
which been converted to regular, full-time employees, according to the
Blade. The company is also offering the part-time workers limited
benefits, including health insurance.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging held a hearing
Tuesday on "what the U.S. health care system can learn from other
countries," where single-payer health care was discussed. And The Los
Angeles Times' Michael Hiltzik caught an exchange between Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Danielle Martin, a Canadian physician and health policy professor.

Burr came at Martin with a number of questions, pointed questions. But Martin had answers. Hiltzik highlighted some key moments."Dr. Martin, in your testimony you note that Canadian doctors exiting
the public system for the private sector has had the effect of
increasing waiting lists for patients seeking public health care," Burr
said. "Why are doctors exiting the public system in Canada?""Thank you for your question, senator," Martin said. "If I didn’t
express myself in a way to make myself understood, I apologize. There
are no doctors exiting the public system in Canada, and in fact we see a
net influx of physicians from the United States into the Canadian
system over the last number of years."Later on, Burr asked Martin: "On average, how many Canadian patients on a waiting list die each year? Do you know?""I don’t, sir, but I know that there are 45,000 in America who die
waiting because they don’t have insurance at all," Martin said....................

Monday, March 03, 2014

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) says he's been vindicated. The Texas conservative's underdog Senate campaign on Monday published a defiant statement,
claiming that Stockman has "grounds to file criminal complaints"
against any person or media organization that published his 1977 arrest
record and mugshot.

"A Michigan official has removed documents from a state website that
erroneously claimed U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman had been convicted
of a crime in the 1970s," Stockman spokesperson Donny Ferguson wrote on
the campaign's website. "Michigan's 43rd Judicial District Clerk stated
Stockman was never convicted of any charge and the documents were
supposed to have been destroyed in 1978. Another Michigan official has
advised Stockman he has grounds to file criminal complaints against any
person or media organization that published the documents."Ferguson did not specify the name of the Michigan official who raised
the prospect of criminal complaints, and did not reply to follow-up
questions from TPM.Stockman's mugshot has been bouncing around the internet for weeks. The Texas Tribune last month published
the arrest records, which indicate that in 1977 Stockman was arrested
and initially charged with felony possession of Valium. The Stockman
campaign now says that a district court judge in Michigan ordered in
1978 the matter dismissed and expunged. Stockman's campaign had previously filed a libel lawsuit
against a super PAC that supports Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), whom
Stockman is challenging in the Texas' Republican primary. The super PAC,
Texans for a Conservative Majority, has funded television ads and a
website that questions Stockman's character, in part relying on the same
1977 records. In his statement on Monday, Ferguson wrote that the
attorney who runs Texans for a Conservative Majority may also face
"repercussions" under Texas law, and that the "Shady Stockman" campaign
the super PAC is running is "untrue and illegal."